The development of the transportation sector in Syria and the actual investment policy

Abstract

Fast, smooth and economic transportation, not only of goods and raw materials, but of people as well, is essential to a country's economic development. Just a few years ago both sectors in Syria left a lot to be desired. In the early 1990s the bulk haulage offreight was essentially serviced by the public sector with large organizational units for cross country haulage by truck or using less efficient railways. There actually were a great many hauliers in the private sector, but these were family concerns each operating only a very few, generally ageing, vehicles. The only exceptions were Syrian road haulage companies in some villages of the Qalamoun which specialised in the transit trade.! Passenger transport was dominated by a lot of small private carriers with fleets of rickety and generally obsolete collective taxis, spartan microbuses and long distance coaches. Only a few larger private firms provided more comfortable buses. In the public sector a single major company belonging to the Defence Ministry was used not only to carry military personnel, but could also be used by civilians for inner city and cross country transport. A beneficial mixed sector offshoot was the Karnaq Company with a fleet of around 80 luxury long distance coaches, owned 90 per cent by the public sector and 10 per cent by the private sector. Transtour/Europcar, another mixed sector enterprise, offered similar wellappointed coaches and served the country's airports and major inter-city routes with fast, but comparatively expensive, large estate cars. A tourist's only chance was to hire one of these chauffeur-driven vehicles at a price. Major shortages were a feature of the overall situation in both transport sectors in the early 1990s. The transportation supply position in the freight sector peaked dramatically during harvesting, particularly of cotton and sugar beet, agricultural products to which Syria attaches strategic importance.2 Deficiencies in inter-city passenger transport resulted in